


Fallen Stars and Rising Gods

by 09Pyros_09Hydros



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Albino Karkat Vantas, Alternate Universe - Celestial, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, Angst, Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Basically me hurting Karkat for a good while for the sake of the plot, Bullying, Character Death, Complicated Relationships, Constellations, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Depressed Karkat, Depression, Drug Addiction, Enemies to Friends, Eventual Happy Ending, F/F, F/M, Friends to Enemies, Friendship Problems, Human Lusii, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Karkat Angst, Karkat Needs a Hug, Karkat Remembers Being A God, Karkat Swearing, Karkat has Cancer, Karkat is Cancer, Loneliness, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Neglect, Out of Body Experiences, Panic Attacks, Past Character Death, Poor Karkat, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Reincarnated as Humans, Reincarnation, Self-Harm, Tags Are Hard, Tags May Change, Teenage Drama, Teenagers, The others don't, Violence, memory recovery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2019-10-22 04:35:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17656157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/09Pyros_09Hydros/pseuds/09Pyros_09Hydros
Summary: His name was Cancer. He was once a celestial being, a constellation that was loved and respected. He was powerful and he had eleven close friends that were just like him. But suddenly everything went wrong.His name is Karkat Vantas. He's now a depressed, problematic freak of a teenager with memories of a god in his head after he was diagnosed with cancer. Fucking hilarious and ironic he knows. He is weak and had eleven close friends when he was younger but they've drifted apart and changed. Everything was wrong.He didn't have a lot of time but he was going to make things right, no matter what.





	1. Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> NO. SELF. RESTRAINT. WHATSOEVER!!
> 
> I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry
> 
> I just hope you enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no restraint whatsoever and now we have a new story under my belt! On my plate. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy, this was actually kind of nice to type. A nice break from my other stories I guess?

* * *

There was a time where the constellations lived and prospered.

Where the stars lived among the cosmos in relative peace and harmony, underneath the twelve main celestials- the gods among gods. The Zodiacs.

They were one of the most powerful stars and constellations within reality, each governing and overlooking an aspect of the universe.

Pisces was a gentle constellation, she looked over **Life** and was the Empress over the Celestial Palace, she looked over her star subjects and made sure that the palace where her fellow Celestials live in was in tip top shape. She was a kind and benevolent Empress.

Aquarius was the Guardian of the Pond, the Pond of Nebulas. It was a pond that over-viewed the wellbeing of almost every star within the universe. Even those of constellations. He watches over the pond and can even swim in it without any repercussions where others would find themselves lost and or even burnt or permanently put out. He also looked over positive emotions, as well as **Hope**.

Capricorn was one the one who roamed the Graveyard of Stars. He made sure that the dying were peaceful and that the dead stay dead, he corralled black holes into safe spaces and made sure that they died out without a problem. And despite his view over **Rage** and negative emotions, he was quite the gentleman, kind and someone you could rely on.

Sagittarius was one of the fastest in the universe, master of the bow and the messenger of the gods. He galloped on stardust and delivered messages from one side of the universe to the next, making sure that the constellations were capable of communication and took orders to heart. He carved a path and looked over the **Void** so no one else would.

Scorpio was a mischievous constellation but she meant well, a manipulator yes but a grand protector and warrior who flourished in the **Light** as she looked over it. She made luck her game and used it to protect the cosmos from those who tried to destroy it. She had a brash personality but was a good friend in the end. A formidable foe not to be gambled against.

Libra was a protector as well, though she mainly maintained justice and order within the universe. Her control over the **Mind** was as sharp as her wit, though blind, she was capable of seeing more than what others could see. She almost always had a back up plan and was capable of turning the tables in almost every impossible situation.

Virgo was a healer first and foremost, she was kind and loving but one should not underestimate her for she was a Celestial for a reason. She was strong in her own right and was capable of tearing apart those who erred her, she looked over **Space** and was mostly revered by the newborn stars and constellations alike as someone akin as their mothers.

Leo was a ferocious warrior who’s prowess could not be comprehended by anyone else other than her fellow Celestials, some may call her feral but she bore her **Heart** to the universe and reminded them that she looked after it within the universe. She wore it proudly on her sleeve and was strong for it.

Gemini was a rare sort of constellation, capable of halving himself with no repercussions and fusing into his main form without a problem. He oversaw the Palace’s knowledge and library, the ultimate source of what was to know. He was a duality that would seem to be at odds with himself and yet in balance and peace, he looked over **Doom** as he had twice the mind to comprehend it.

Taurus was someone who was free as the astral wind, with stars in his wings and a strong sense of freedom, he looked over **Breath** and freedom, he was a strong protector. Brave and compassionate to the interests he held, making sure that every star was free yet reminded them that freedom had a cost.

Aries was a fellow wanderer of the graveyard, overseeing the death and **Time** of stars and constellations everywhere, nebulas and galaxies whisper their deaths into her ear and she is undeterred nor disturbed by their whispers. In fact she takes comfort in their tales, making sure that the mistakes and regrets of stars were rectified and fixed.

Cancer, the last of the Celestials, was a hardy constellation. Some found him too angry and hateful to be a Celestial, and yet, he was. Despite what some would think, he was a perfect candidate for it, despite his apparent brash personality and rough attitude, he was kind and gentle to those he saw as his. He oversaw the **Blood** of others, their bonds and their kin. He kept the whole group together, and the Celestials themselves came to him whenever they needed to make an important decision.

These twelve constellations ruled over the universe with a fair and firm hold, their rule was the Golden Era of the Galaxy.

And like other Golden Eras…

It was bound to end.

* * *

“ _Cancer.”_

_He looks back to who calls his name, his usual neutral frown twitching into a slight smile at constellation that stood at the doorway. “Aquarius.” He greets quietly, glancing away from the violet-starred celestial towards the dark blue sky dotted with millions of lights and mists of glittering colors. “What brings you to my tower?” He asks as the celestial glides to his side despite his lack of aquatic tail like Pisces, his amphora floats beside him._

_Aquarius chuckles, golden jewelry clinking slightly as he moves his arms to motion out to the beautiful city that was beneath both of them, on the edge of their Palace where their subjects lived their lives peacefully. “Must I havve a reason to come to enjoy this vvieww? I envvy your choice, I should havve asked Pisces for this towwer instead of my pond.” He jokes lightly, a needed action from the as of late heavy discussions between he and their fellow constellations._

“ _You jest, you love your pond, it matches well with your vase.” Cancer mused with an amused smile._

_He gets another chuckle as a reply and a friendly swat on his shoulder, “’Tis an amphora Cancer, honestly, you and the others, you cannot just call it a simple vvase, you all vvery wwell knoww it is not just that.” He laments light heartedly._

_They share a chuckle and slip into comfortable silence, looking over their beautiful kingdom with a sense of content._

_That sense, unfortunately, was only limited and a simple illusion. They both knew that something was over the horizon, they didn’t need Libra to tell them that._

_Cancer sighs, straightening and arranging his cloak, “That is enough star-gazing for now, I suppose Pisces wants an audience with everyone.” He states rather asks, knowing the answer already. His confirmation comes from Aquarius’ small but very heavy sigh, he further confirms it with a terse nod._

_They leave his tower, traversing the glorious halls and corridors of their palace towards the war room where most of their important discussions were done in the private among them. No one else but the celestials were allowed within the room without permission._

_They arrive, not the first but not the last. Pisces, Virgo, Aries and Taurus were present, but the others had yet to arrived._

“ _Capricorn, Leo, and Sagittarius will be absent for this meeting, Gemini should be coming from the library.” Virgo informed them as they went to sit down at their assigned and usual seats._

_Cancer looked over to Aries who responded, “Libra is late but Scorpio will also absent for the meeting.”_

_He nodded, “Very well. Then let us start the meeting.” Cancer said, Libra would no doubt already know the moment she comes into the room, she always does._

_A threat was looming over them, a darkness that was devouring the universe, something that was never seen before and it was not going to stop until it got everything in existence…_ Especially _the celestials themselves._

* * *

“ _ **CANCER**_ _!”_

_H_ _e’s been hit by something._ _It was an ambush._

_He couldn’t_ breathe _, there was something in. His._ **Chest** _._

“ _D-Don’t worry Cancer, we’ll get you to Virgo, she will heal you--” A scream. He knows that voice._

“ _A-Ar–“_

* * *

“ _ **ARIES**_!”

Karkat shouts, heart in his throat as he abruptly sits up, sweating and panting as he tried to gain his bearings. He can’t see where he is, he can’t remember where he is, he trembles as he wraps his arms around himself in an effort to comfort himself even as a small pain flared in his chest, it’s nothing but a psychosomatic and phantom pain that never should have existed. But it does. He grips his arms, grits his teeth and pulls himself together.

It barely works but eventually, he’s calming his quick pants to steady breathes. The pain throbs in his chest but goes away after he firmly tells himself it wasn’t real.

None of it was real.

Not anymore.

“F-Fuck...” He breathes, the paranoia and anxiety is receding but not completely. Never completely. It always stays at the edge of his mind, ready to attack him once again but for now, it recedes and he calms. “… Not again...” Karkat gruffs, complaining as he sees the tinge of red of his vision, he looked down to his fingers and sees the slight red light that is one them, the source of it coming from his face.

He throws himself out of bed in the most ungraceful manner possible and trudges towards the bathroom, stumbling over the sheets that tangled his legs with a curse but managing to escape it and continue on. Karkat blindly walks through the darkness, something he used to be afraid of when he was younger but now didn’t really care anymore. Besides, ever since… _then_ , he could see in the dark, a different kind of night vision.

Stumbling into the bathroom, he turns on the light, closes and locks the door, then faces the mirror.

Baggy red eyes greeted him in the harsh, bright bathroom light --his guardian must have finally replaced the dim light-bulb of the room-- as he leaned forward to tiredly observe himself in the mirror. He instinctively looks at his hair first, the black dye was finally wearing off, the white of his roots are now showing. He’ll have to dye it again later.

Forcefully moving on, he looked into his eyes, his freakish, red eyes. He scowled at them, he always hated his genetics. Being born an albino wasn’t an advantage in school, it was a nightmare really.

But if his natural freakish red eyes weren’t enough, the _new_ state of his freakish red eyes was really something unnatural, something that didn’t involved his fucked up genetics.

His pupils were red and _shining_ , the edge of his sclera had small moving veins that were trying to reach his glowing red eyes. It had really fucking freaked him out at first, but now, they just made him uncomfortable. Karkat huffed before closing his eyes and focusing on repressing it.

His eyes pricked slightly, and he felt a shiver go down his spine.

When he opened them again, he was actually glad to see his _normal_ but still freaky red eyes. At least they weren’t glowing now. No red light was coming from his eyes at all. In fact, at least it was _just_ glowing eyes this time, it all could’ve gone so much more worse.

Inhaling, he held his breath for a solid half-minute then let go.

Karkat looked away from the mirror, staring down to the sink and letting out a shaky breath as he remembered the name that left his lips the moment he woke up from… _that shit_.

“… Aries...” He mumbled before shaking his head, “No, fuck that. I’m not…” He looked back up to the mirror and saw not _his_ reflection… But _**his**_ reflection.

A man stood in the mirror, posture straight, confident and strong. He had wild shining white hair with a small thin braid that curled around his shoulders, above his forehead and nestled in his hair was a silver tiara-like crown with three spires, a red gem rested right on the middle spire with the silver brand of the astrological sign Cancer was on it. His eyes were _glowing_ red, literal galaxies behind the strong gaze of the man. From his ear right earlobe was a metal earring of a small tribal-looking crab that seemed to hold on to his ear.

He wore a silky grey cloak with red embroidered thread holding it together and giving it a regal design. Underneath the cloak was clothing that befitted of a noble prince, a dark red tunic with small golden designs, on the left breast of his tunic was the sign of Cancer again and around his waist was a black belt that held a wicked looking weapon, a dangerous-looking sickle, its metal was blood red with ancient lettering carved into it.

He was Cancer. One of the Twelve Zodiac Celestials. Millions of years old and ancient, wise–

Karkat closed his eyes tightly as his chest clenched, the phantom pain coming back as he tried to clear that image of Cancer out of his head. “I’m not Cancer, I’m not Cancer,” He muttered, over and over again as he slowly sunk to the ground. Cancer was dead. He wasn’t Cancer, he wasn’t a god, a constellation or whatever. He was- _is_ , Karkat Vantas, utterly human, sixteen years old and _weak_.

From the mirror, Cancer looked down to his human self with sadness and closed his eyes, fading from the mirror and back into the deep dark depths of Karkat’s mind. He wasn’t ready, unfortunately that did not matter. They didn’t have much time after all.

Not with the tumor in his heart.

* * *

“ _I’m sorry Mister Vantas, but it seems that you have cancer.”_

_Karkat looks at the doctor with a stunned face, “I-I… I have c-cancer?”_

“ _It seems you have a primary cardiac tumor, or rather a tumor in your heart.”_

_Cancer._

_C **a** n **c** e **r** …_

“ _I will tell your custodian as soon as he comes by and –“_

_Karkat panicked, he didn’t know what happened but he panicked, “ **No! Don’t tell him I have cancer!** ” He flinched back with his vision flashed red. Across him, the doctor’s eyes flashed red as well. _

“ _Yes… sir...”_

_Kasper, or crabdad as little Karkat had called him before, doesn’t find out. All he knows is that Karkat has depression and an elevated blood pressure. Nothing much to worry about, Karkat is confused by the doctor’s actions as he didn’t tell him or anyone else about his illness._

_Then the drea-no, the_ memories _and_ nightmares _began to happen..._

* * *

Karkat barked a harsh laugh as he thought about it. Just as soon as he had been diagnosed with cancer, he finds out he _was_ Cancer, as in the constellation. Whatever reason, the memories of his past life, the life of a fucking _celestial_ _being_ , got jogged out from being _diagnosed with cancer._

He had the memories of a _god_ in his head, he couldn’t make sense of most of them, he forgot a lot of them but it was an irrefutable fact – the proof was in his head, in his _veins_. Karkat glanced down to his arms and hesitantly, he rolls up his sleeves to see what was underneath the cloth, the thin lines on the inside of his elbows that went to his shoulder made his head swirl a bit but it’s a somewhat comforting sight to see for him, he bit his lip and focused on his finger. His nail glowed red and slowly, he dragged a small but thin red line on his arm, he watches the glowing blood that escapes the line he made and he gulps in an intake of hair.

His nail stops glowing and for a while, he stares at his glowing blood, it glittered slightly, dying and barely living embers of light trapped in his blood, so different from the blood from his dreams, the ones he could remember and woke up crying out and screaming had blood that _shone_ like stars. He’s just glad that his room was somewhat sound proof for whatever reason.

Karkat doesn’t move from his place on the bathroom until someone knocks on the bathroom door, Karkat washes and wipes the glowing blood away. It never dries, he has a small jar of his own blood hidden underneath his bed and it smells and seems like it was brand new even though it was fucking _weeks_ old. The line heals easily and he rolls down his sleeve, steeling his face, he splashes water in his face and flushes the toilet.

It tricks whoever was outside to think he had been pissing or something. He wiped his face dry and unlocked the bathroom door to face his older brother.

Kankri looks at him blearily through a mess of white hair, albinism runs in the family unfortunately.

“The bathroom’s yours.” Karkat mumbled as he walked past his older brother, intending to head back to his room and try to get a few more hours of sleep. It was too early to be awake but who cares. It wasn’t really his fault, it was _his_ fault, fucking Cancer.

Kankri nodded and wordlessly entered the bathroom. Kankri is thankfully, not as chatty during the late of night or early morning. A blessing on the world, truly.

The reincarnated constellation went back to his room, locking the door and sighing heavily, trudging back towards his bed. Flopping down on it, he tiredly curled up on the bed and tried to get comfortable even though he knew that he wouldn’t be getting back to sleep any time soon.

‘ _Aries..._ ’

“Shut up...” Karkat muttered to the random thought that popped up in his head, Aries was likely dead, was somewhere reincarnated –Aradia, she’s Aradia, it’s so fucking obvious it hurts– and was fine. Lucky for her, she probably doesn’t remember her death. Lucky bitch.

He tries to sleep. He fails. He curses and gets up to mess around in the internet.

No point in trying to waist any more time sleeping, he had school today anyway.

Karkat didn’t bother restraining his groan, he was in the safety of his room.

Great.

Another shitty way, to start a shitty day.

He couldn’t _possibly_ wait for all the _good shit_ that would happen at school today.

Fucking ecstatic. ****

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Karkat, things are going to be so hard on him in this story. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


	2. Times Have Changed ~ I ~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Or in other words I try to be wordy and descriptive. I'm not the most fashionable person out there and I don't really know a lick of proper fashion and I'm probably describing it confusingly but here we go! I can only hope that you guys can get the picture I'm painting with these words that I'm using to describe these characters. 
> 
> Also, it's pretty obvious that some characters will be OOC, either as 'Celestials' or as 'Humans', reincarnation is a damning thing to a personality sometimes ahaha, also that's what I THINK they'd act as gods and goddesses.

Hauntswitch High was a gigantic school. The main building itself was quite large with four floors and three interconnected buildings. Haunswitch even had another school nearby, Hauntswitch College. But the focus here was on Hauntswitch High.

There were three main buildings, Prospit, Derse and Skaia. Prospit were where most of the morning classes took place for most grades, Derse was in the afternoon, and Skaia was where students spent time outside of classes, Skaia held the libraries, the cafeteria, the clubrooms. Shit like that.

The Founder of the school was weird as hell, and was surprisingly still alive after founding it like, sixty years ago. Though he wasn’t seen much on school property, but there were some weird times they’d seen Sir Hussie himself in the library or in the horse ranch–yes, there was a horse ranch, horse back riding was actually a popular activity within the school, there was a Equine Appreciation Club within the school after all which Sir Hussie personally created at the start of the school’s founding.

At any rate though, Hauntswitch high school was a large place, so you’d think Karkat would see his ‘friends’ less… if it weren’t for the fact they were his classmates and they were in the same year level. Thankfully though, they had different schedules so he didn’t see everyone in every goddamn class. He doesn’t think he would be able to take it.

Karkat sighed tiredly, opening his locker after putting in his locker’s code. Hauntswitch was also very technologically advanced, it was a wonder that Karkat and the others could actually attend the school but surprisingly the school’s tuition wasn’t that expensive, somehow. He didn’t care as long as he could just trudge through school and graduate.

 _If_ he could live long enough to do that.

The albino’s grip on his backpack strap tightened at the thought before he let out a surprised yelp when he _someone_ bumped into him, causing him to drop his books. “Shit!”

“Aw shit, sorry there–Ey! Karbro! Good motherfucking morning!” Karkat swore, both internally and externally as he recognized the voice of the one who had bumped into him. Reluctantly, Karkat picked up his books and turned to him, grimacing at the lazy and carefree grin that the other was wearing.

Gamzee Makara.

~~‘ _ **Capricorn...’**_~~

‘ _Shut the fuck up_ ’ He thought to himself as he looked at the tall teen before him. Karkat’s eyes were first drawn to the unnaturally messy hair, it was like motherfucker had never heard of a comb before or even knew they existed but surprisingly it kind of fitted him. If anything it matched well with the grey face paint that Gamzee usually wore, it didn’t completely cover his face but around his eyes were painted grey along with around his pierced lips in the shape of a smile. All he needed was some white paint and a red nose and Gamzee would finally look like a true fucking clown. He never got why Gamzee was obsessed with the shitty harlequin wearing people.

Gamzee wore a tattered looking zip-up hoodie which was left unzipped, though the patches looked purposefully stitched on as a design choice, underneath the hoodie was a simple purple shirt, but around his neck was a simple silver chain with a small harlequin figure hanging off the chain. Ripped dark blue jeans served as Gamzee’s pants, the rips were around his knees as the typical ripped jeans way.

Karkat twitched and gave Gamzee a grunt, “Morning Gamzee.” He greeted back monotonously, taking a causing whiff when Gamzee was near enough. He grimaced at the subtle scent of tabacco, well, at least it wasn’t weed or any other drugs that usually was enough for the fucker. A peek at Gamzee’s purple eyes revealed that he hadn’t smoked anything other than cigarettes. Plus, he must have actually took his medicine rather than using anything else since he was relaxed despite the fact he wasn’t high.

It was a wonder that Gamzee had been a gentlemanly god, he couldn’t remember much about Capricorn, but he could remember the way Capricorn acted, gentlemanly, precise and graceful like every other celestial but it was hard to think that Gamzee was _ever_ as precise as Capricorn was. Capricorn would have never resorted to _drugs_ and other unsightly activities that Gamzee participated in, though that may have been because of his stupid custodian, Giles, the neglectful son of a shit.

“How you’ve fallen Capricorn...” Karkat unintentionally mumbled to himself, Cancer briefly emerging to say it aloud instead of forming it as a _manageable_ thought for Karkat. He is _not_ Cancer, he’s _Karkat_. Naturally though, he panics slightly at the slip and the look of confusion on Gamzee’s face.

“What was that?”

Oh good, he didn’t hear it completely. “Nothing, just mumbling to my own fucking self.” Karkat replied, telling the half-truth. It wasn’t _nothing_ , it would _never_ be _nothing_ when it came to… Focusing back, “Anyway, we should probably get going, class is almost starting.” He says afterwards, stashing some of his things in his locker after a look towards the nearest clock. Though he pauses and looks over to Gamzee, “Will you be going to class or...”

Gamzee smiled at him and he tells himself he’s unaffected by the smile and that the relief he feels is for earlier when Gamzee hadn’t caught his slip of tongue. “Yeah best bro, I’ll be all going to class today.” As opposed to when he didn’t and skipped it to smoke or do knows who knows what.

Karkat grunted and nodded, closing his locker and hefting his backpack over his shoulder as Gamzee waited for him patiently. Soon, they were making their way towards their first class. On the way, Karkat can’t help but sneak a few glances at Gamzee as he began to just ramble on about something that happened over the weekend for him.

His relationship with Gamzee was, complicated to say the least.

He smothers a snort, yeah, complicated pretty much described _all_ his relationships with his, ‘friends’. If you could call some of them that any more.

There were about four, maybe five, people he was close enough to even call them a _tentative_ friend and only about two of them was something he was sure about. Gamzee, unbelievably enough, was one of them. The other, was Kanaya.

Who, speak of the devil, was already at the classroom.

“Heey there Kanaya sister.” Gamzee greeted with his usual lazy drawl, smiling at the teenage female that sat in her seat.

“Gamzee, Karkat, good morning.” Kanaya greeted back with a kind smile. She had short hair and lovely tan brown skin, she had green lipstick on today, it matched well with her jade-colored eyes. Heavy make-up was prohibited in the school unless it was a special occasion, like a school event or project. Piercings, dyed hair, and appropriate clothes were allowed though.

She wore a black fashionable sweater with green stitching and design, with it, she wore a long cherry red skirt with a silver belt buckle. Though to his unfortunate and uncontrollable delight, she also had stitched the sign of Virgo into her sweater in dark green.

~~’ _ **Ever so fashionable Virgo’**_~~

Though for a rare moment, Karkat had to agree ,however reluctantly he had to, Kanaya was always the most fashionable out of them all. And telling by the pieces of memories he was able to remember without summoning a headache or a panic attack was that Virgo, supposedly Kanaya but she kind of looked more like Porrim with that long hair of hers, was very beautiful and fashionable.

“Hey Kanaya.” He finally greeted after shaking his head, no need in getting lost in his head for worthless bullshit. He had to focus on school and real life right now, not in the past and the broken memories in his mind. He goes to sit beside her in his usual seat, which was beside her. Gamzee sat in front of him whenever he could, leaning back against his chair inappropriately with his trademark lazy smile. “The chair’s gonna snap underneath your fat ass if you keep tilting it back like that.” Karkat deadpanned, feeling more relaxed at his desk and with Kanaya by his side alongside with Gamzee.

Gamzee waved off his warning, “All is motherfucking fine my wicked brother, all shit’s motherfucking fine.” He said, though he did stop putting most of his weight on one leg of his chair. Which was good.

The three of them continued to talk and patiently wait for class to start. Though, as they do, two certain people entered the classroom right before the class started. The sight of them made Karkat tense and he subconsciously shifted in his seat. Kanaya noticed and sent him a sympathetic look, Gamzee didn’t seem to notice and just continued to chatter on obliviously which actually kind of helped Karkat.

~~‘~~ _**~~Scorpio and Libra,~~ ~~still mischievous, but for the wrong reasons...~~ ~~’~~ ** _

“ _Shut up_...” Karkat hissed quietly to himself as he deliberately looked away from both girls. Luckily he had been able to get away with it, no one had heard it. ‘ _They’re not Libra and Scorpio_.’ He told himself sternly, he couldn’t afford to slip into Cancer’s state of mind, not again.

They were Vriska Serket and Terezi Pyrope. Two infamous students within the school, popular and dangerous-- well, dangerous to the eyes of the teens within the school. To the adults they were just troublesome students and punks, but as long as they didn’t cause too much trouble (or get caught really) and keep their grades average and above, then they weren’t much to look after.

Vriska was a known punk trouble making teen, and a manipulative bully. She had blond hair with a cerulean blue-streak on her bangs of her long hair, she had to wear prescription-grade glasses most of the time, she wasn’t someone to underestimate. She had copious amount of blackmail on her that she could use against those who went against her. She wore a cerulean jacket with a fishnet undershirt and a grey sleeveless top. She too wore ripped jeans, though they were a lighter color compared to Gamzee’s. She also wore four different bracelets on each arm, for some reason she was obsessed with spiders and the number eight, it was her ‘lucky number’.

Terezi was more neutral but just as troublesome, she had a sharp tongue and was adept in seeing loopholes in agreements and used it to her advantage whenever she was in trouble. She was quite close to Vriska, she was her best friend after all, practically sisters even after the slight fall out they had a while ago that lead to the group really break away from each other. She was legally blind, her eyesight was so bad, she _did_ need an cane, but with her genetics, her other senses were heightened to the point that some people sometimes forgot that she was blind. She had pointed red glasses perched on her nose, a dragon-shaped hair clip nestled in her ginger hair to keep her bangs away from her face. She wore a short sleeved teal and red shirt over a thin, long, sleeved black sweater. She wore regular black jeans though she did have a red belt with a dragon-head buckle, just as Vriska was obsessed with eights and spiders, she was obsessed with dragons, the top of her cane was in the shape of a dragon head.

Karkat purposefully avoided in looking at them, especially at Terezi. She had been his crush once upon a time, but things had changed and he’s rather avoid her like the plague. He talked with Kanaya, not glancing at Terezi at all even if he could practically _feel_ her gaze on him.

He wonders what she wants now, she doesn’t look over to him without a good reason.

Luckily, it seemed that it wouldn’t come up right now since she and Vriska was quite busy between themselves, no doubt plotting for their next scheme or something.

Class came after a few minutes and the last minute students were coming in, and one of them had Gamzee perking up happily.

Tavros Nitram came into class a few minutes late, rolling into class in his wheelchair, a constant reminder of one of the more seriously bad things that came between their group of friends. Vriska instantly scowled at the sight of the wheelchair but ignored Tavros, Terezi smiled a bit sadly and greeted Tavros quietly as he rolled by.

~~‘ _ **Taurus, your wings have been clipped...’**_~~

Karkat mentally snorted, ‘ _It’s more than his wings that’ve been clipped… wait, shit, Tavros doesn’t even_ have _wings dammit!’_ He cursed to himself as Tavros greeted back Terezi with a small smile, ignoring Vriska as well and rolling over to his desk which lacked a chair for obvious reasons.

Tavros had dark brown hair in a fluffy-looking mohawk since the side of his head had been shaved, he wore a black shirt that had the Pokemon _Tauros_ printed on it, ironic for obvious reasons. He wore light brown cargo pants and carried a plain light brown backpack that usually stayed in his lap. His legs were really weak, he still needed to do a lot of physical therapy to actually walk so most of the time he was in his wheelchair.

And with that, class began.

* * *

\-- carcinoGuardian [CG] began pestering carcinoGeneticist [CG] at 12:09 PM --

CG: Karkat, I’ll be late in coming home so dinner will be a bit later than usual since I’ll be stopping by the store.  
CG: What do you want for dinner tonight?

CG: Anything will be fine.

CG: Are you sure?

CG: Yeah, anything is fine as long as its edible and shit.

CG: Language young man!

CG: >:P

CG: Don’t you stick your tongue out at me.

Karkat snorted, smiling fondly at his guardian and adopted father. Despite the scolding message he knew that Kasper didn’t really care if he cursed in his messages, not really. Cursing just came naturally to him, it was a part of his personality.

Kasper Vantas was a great custodian. He was definitely better than most other guardians, with the exception of a few like Kanaya’s, Tavros’, etc, but he was definitely better than Giles Makara. He had no idea how the bastard still had custody over both Kurloz and Gamzee.

At any rate though, he was glad to have Kasper as his guardian.

It was… part of the reason why he didn’t want to burden his guardian with, the knowledge of his illness. Kasper would work himself tirelessly to the bone in trying to help him, stressing to the point of death maybe. It was stupid he knew, but, he didn’t really want anyone to find out that he had cancer. It wasn’t as if it was going to change anything.

The surgery was too expensive and even if they could afford it he wasn’t too keen in having anyone finding out about his weird magic blood. His blood could glow and that was _not_ normal, he’d rather not deal with doctors questioning him on why the fuck that was that. Not to mention the apparent powers he got along with Cancer’s memories…

It was just his luck that happened.

Speaking of his powers.

He had no idea how they worked most of the time. He knew he could turn his nails into like, dangerous glowing knives that could cut through _anything_ –he’s tested it against wood, stone, and even fucking _steel_ , there wasn’t much his nails could cut through– and that for some reason his blood glowed like the liquid in fucking glowsticks.

And, for some reason, he could control people.

Not everyone, just some. And that control wasn’t really, precise. He had no real idea on why that was it but the doctor that had told him about his illness hadn’t told anyone about it, he hadn’t told Kasper of it. Well, he had _one_ idea about it, he had asked him what his Zodiac sign was. Lo and behold, the man was a Cancer.

Apparently those who were born under the sign of Cancer could be controlled by him, or well, commanded he guessed since ‘control’ seemed more… malicious than he’d like. He didn’t like using that power, that and unless the person was a Cancer then he could do jack shit with them.

That aside, the only powers he could do was command and the nails thing, but he knew he had more but he didn’t know what they were.

Karkat groaned, thumping his head against the concrete wall behind him as he looked up to the sky. Why him? Why did _he_ have to get the memories and apparent powers of a god? Just what the fuck happened anyway?

No. Never mind, he didn’t really want to know. That would just invite more bullshit into his life. He could barely handle the shit he had in his life now, he couldn’t really handle _more_ of it.

Dammit, he felt so tired…

* * *

“ _Cancer!”_

_Stopping from his walk, he turned to see Libra coming his way with Taurus, both grinning as they did so. Cancer chuckled slightly, “Libra, Taurus.” He greeted casually._

_Libra smiled toothily, her eyes semi-hidden underneath her silky transparent blindfold. It fluttered behind her slightly as she gracefully slunk towards him with purpose, her teal teardrop earrings glinting with light and hidden power as they hung from her lobes. A transparent red cape settled around her shoulders that trailed after her. She wore a golden and teal sleeveless top, her sign permanently marked on her naked shoulders in dark red, she had golden bracers with various gems embedded on them._

_Around her hips were a teal belt with a silver dragon carved into the buckle, and from the belt, two separate golden scales hung as a sign of balance. She rarely used them, only in times of need, she usually relied on her staff for actual combat, that and she loved to use the staff to poke around things and stars alike. Cancer rolled his eyes as Libra used her staff to poke_ him _._

_Her teal and red skirt swished as she and Taurus stopped by him._

“ _I thought you were busy with the stars in the Northern cosmos.” Cancer told them, turning to face them fully._

_Taurus grinned at him, “We managed to finish early and come home. Scorpio unfortunately, is still at the Southern helm so she will not be here until the clans of Lupus and Lynx have settled down and stop terrorizing the stars around them.” He told him, brushing his nose, his golden bull-nose ring glinting. The nose ring matched with the other golden bracelets and jewelry adorning Taurus’ bull horns, both for protection and a wonderful fashion statement._

_His brown, shining wings flutter behind himself, galaxies swirling in his wings while orange starlight came from his eyes. He wore an open golden brown tunic, his sign proudly stitched and flowing in the middle of his chest that revealed the silver chain mail shirt that was underneath the open tunic. Leather and metal bracers were around his wrists but shorter compared to Libra’s, his lance laid comfortably by his right hip, and by his left, his simple yet powerful knife._

“ _And you come unscathed.” A voice came from behind them._

_They turn to see Capricorn and Virgo casually walking up to them._

_Virgo smiled gently but that didn’t hide the sharp fangs that protruded from her lips, her long tresses of dark yet glittering hair trailing behind her. Her hair nearly rivaled both Scorpio and Pisces in terms of length. Her skin shone a shiny white with curls of beautiful darkness marking her bright white skin underneath the translucent green fabric that draped around her shoulders and arms, her dress, hugging her figure and proudly displaying her sign in a very creative way. Like Taurus, yellow starlight shone from her eyes while the rest of her shone brighter than the rest._

_Libra chortled, “We are sorry to disappoint you then Virgo, for coming back unharmed and unable to visit you and your infirmary once more.” She teased, making the bright constellation chuckle in amusement._

“ _On the contrary, I approve.” Virgo replied with Capricorn nodding in agreement._

_The gentlemanly constellation speaking softly, “As do I, with how you warriors and protectors typically are, I’d rather not escort you to the graveyard, no matter how beautiful your deaths might be… Aries words mostly as she told me once.” He said with fond amusement that they all shared._

_Capricorn wore a lovely long-tailed purple vest, his sign marked golden on the right breast pocket of it, underneath the vest was a long-cuffed shirt in white, its silver and purple cuffs quite fetching, it matched with the silver and black gloves he wore most of the time. His face, painted white, mostly to hide the ghastly scar that he had gotten in an accidental,_ situation _, with Leo, it ended with regrets but things were just fine now between the two, if a bit tense sometimes when the matter came up. His mane of a hair, wild as ever with slight dark purple mists wistfully escaping hold sometimes with each movement of his head._

“ _Well, Aries would be correct in how beautiful our deaths would be. As constellations of our prowess, our births and deaths would be a spectacle that most stars would be lucky to witness,” Cancer agreed then continued, “However, thankfully I have full confidence that our deaths would not be happening any time soon.”_

“ _Really now? And here I thought I was going to die of boredom from the machinations of the Lupus and Lynx’s lamentations about one another.” Another voice said from behind Libra and Taurus, one that made Libra beam and shine brighter as her practical sister comes forward._

_Scorpio flicked her dark blue hair over her shoulder, smiling smugly through her sharp teeth, scorpion tail leisurely flicking behind her in clear amusement. She wore a long regal cerulean jacket, underneath, a black corset with her sign stylized at the middle, underneath her breasts but clear and visible for all to see. Underneath the corset was of course, a light blue tunic. By her left hip, clasped to her brown belt was her dark cerulean rapier, and her other hip, her pouch that contained her most powerful weapon which was reserved only for emergencies like the scales of Libra._

“ _Scorpio! I would have thought that the Lupus and Lynx clans would have kept you further!” Libra said, delighted to see her._

_She got a brash scoff in return, “As if! Of course I would settle their little problem quickly, I am hurt that you would think of such a thing.” She said with a smile. Ever the arrogant, even if she had the power and experience to back it up._

“ _Apologies on that then.” Cancer chuckled, looking away from them to look at the place they all happened to gather at. They were at the palace’s garden, it was one of the most beautiful places of their kingdom, Cancer was pretty sure that every flora of their kingdom was within the palace walls in one way or another, some flora even came from the far reaches of their universe, contributed by each celestial._

_It was hard to think that just millions of years ago, the garden was barren and that things were quite different between the twelve of them. He could barely remember just appearing into his side of the universe, alone and so young… He wondered on where he would have been had he not met the others, or if things went into a different turn between the twelve of them._

“ _...cer. Cancer!”_

_The crab-signed celestial blinked, turning back to the others with an apologetic look, “Ah, my apologies. I was distracted for a while.” He said, bowing his head slightly._

_Scorpio snorted, “We can see that, at any rate though, Pisces is calling for us. It seems like she wants to hold a meeting.” She informed him, motioning to the starry aquatic semi-humanoid fish that was currently bowing to them._

_Cancer blinked and nodded, his usual neutral look settled on his face, “Ah, I see.” He said, nodding to the starry fish with a grateful nod, “We should not keep our dearest Empress waiting now should we?” He questioned rhetorically as the others nodded._

_He wonders on what Pisces wanted this time._

* * *

_Cancer gasped for breath, laid upon the medical cot with Virgo looming over him with a serious look as she quickly wrapped his wounds to the best of her ability. “Get me more galaxian mist!” Virgo hissed to a worried and beaten up Taurus who quickly nodded, scampering of to the cupboards and cabinets to do just that._

“ _A-A...ries...”_

“ _She is fine, right now you are my main focus!” Virgo barked as he groaned in pain when she tightened the bandage around his_ chest _where a red and black spot pulsed from his skin. “I don’t understand, this spot_ clearly _is doing something to you and yet I cannot find what it is doing!” She said with frustration as she laid a glowing jade hand over his heart._

“ _Nn…. Fo-focus, on A-Aries… I’m fine...” Cancer tried to growl and order, though it mostly fell flat from his breathless and pained tone. “G-give her… galaxian, mist...”_

_Virgo twitched, “You, my friend, are a self-sacrificing idiotic--” She took in a deep breath, “Fine, if only to give myself more time in trying to find out what this spot is doing to you. I will have Taurus look after you while I focus on Aries.” She snapped._

_Cancer chuckled weakly, though he winced when Virgo looked at him with a solid strict look. He looked over to Aries, where she laid in a similar cot beside him, she looked just as worse as he was though she wasn’t sporting the red and black spot he had on his chest, which was good in his personal opinion._

“ _...kat...”_

_Huh?_

“ _Kar..at!”_

* * *

“Karkat!”

Karkat jolted from his place against the wall, breath hitching from the sudden awakening. “Fuck!” He curses when he accidentally bumps his head a bit too hard to the wall behind him.

“Woah, thorry there KK, found you thleepin’ up here… You do know it’th like, patht lunch now right?”

The albino blinked at the sound of the familiar voice and looked up to see _Sollux Captor_ standing above him with an amused look on his face. Though, for a moment, still tired and somewhat submerged in his subconscious, it's _Cancer_ that blurts out as a similar and familiar event had happened plenty of times before.

“ Eínai entáxei Dídymoi, den tha éprepe na koimíthika xaná sti vivliothíki sas.” [It is alright Gemini, I should have not fallen asleep in your library again.]

Karkat comes back wide awake and was instantly mortified by what he said as Sollux’s face morphed into one of befuddlement and confusion, “The fuck did you jutht thay KK?”

Dammit he shouldn’t have fallen asleep in school!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am really liking this AU.  
> Also I wasn't comfortable in leaving this story with only one chapter so far!  
> Hope you enjoyed guys, this story has a really interesting path going for it!  
> Now if only I can actually follow the path while following about a dozen other paths for my other stories TuT


	3. Times Have Changed ~ II ~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof, been a while. 
> 
> Sorry guys, been a bit busy with other stories but hey! At least this chapter is long! Almost 7,000+ words! To be accurate it's about 6,851 words. 
> 
> At any rate! I hope you enjoy the chapter!

* * *

_Foot. Meet, Mouth. Foot, proceed to horribly cram yourself into Mouth would you?_

Fuck.

Karkat gulped as he looked at Sollux with wide eyes, he couldn’t fucking _believe_ himself. Greek? Fucking _greek_ was spewed out of his mouth. _Shit_.

Never before has Karkat damned the existence of an entire language before but here he was now! Damning _Greek_ for existing and coming out of his damned mouth in a weird fucking moment of his life! How the hell did he even know Greek? He’s never-

Oh right. Memories of an apparently Greek-speaking god in his head. _How bad of him to not remember that._

But he had never realized that they had been speaking in an entirely different language, for a moment he had thought it had been English but looking back, _nope_. Definitely Greek. Wow. He had learned - _remembered??_ \- and entire language. Great. Fucking awesome.

_**Not!** _

“KK what the fuck came out of your mouth.” Sollux deadpanned at him, looking at him with weirded out eyes behind his stupid red and blue tinted glasses.

~~‘ _ **Gemini’**_~~

Sollux Captor, resident ‘hot nerd’ of the computer’s class. Despite his lispy, pessimistic, bipolar and nerdy attitude, he was somewhat popular. At least, enough to not garner attention with bullies and such, there were rumors that he was an information broker and a paid hacker as well floating around the school.

And when Karkat meant bipolar, he actually meant he thought Sollux had some sort of Identity Disorder most of the time. Some times Sollux acted one way, other times another and the rest of the time as himself! There was no telling with this guy. One day he was Nice-Ass McKindness, the next he was Douchfuck McRudeness.

~~‘ _ **He was never meant to be one person all the time’**_~~

This would be one of the rare moments that Karkat would agree with Cancer. Sollux didn’t seem to be fit to be one person. In fact, he seemed to be owning his bipolar disorder. Despite how Sollux might act in public- bipolarity aside, he was obsessed with the number two, duality, the primary colors of red, blue and yellow, doom and finally death.

Which kind of made sense to Karkat now that he knew who Sollux was. That is, if Karkat ever fully accepted the whole god shenanigan that was going on with him.

“KK? Yo, KK, you there?”

Karkat blinked, shaking his head as he tore himself away from his thoughts. He shouldn’t be spacing out with Sollux in front of him like this. He looked at the male with a wry look, his eyes unconsciously looking up and down at the brunet.

Sollux wore a black t-shirt and a white jacket, stitched in the middle of his shirt was a familiar Gemini symbol in murky yellow. He wore two wrist bands, one red on his right and one blue in his left. He wore grey jeans and had mismatching but still kind of matching shoes, a black shoe on his left foot and a white shoe on his right, Karkat wouldn’t even bet his lunch money to know that Sollux no doubt was wearing mismatching socks as well, it was obvious. On his face was a pair of red and blue tinted glasses, kind of like 3D glasses but they were actually prescription-grade glasses instead of shitty plastic ones.

Karkat huffed and reluctantly nodded, “Yeah, I’m fucking fine.” He replied tersely, uncurling and letting his legs stretch in front of him, then, he remembered what Sollux had just told him. “Wait a fucking minute, _shit_!” He shouted as he scrambled to get to his feet.

Lunch was over! He needed to get to class! ~~_And get away from Sollux. He’s still sorry._~~

“KK- Jethuth fuck, watch it!” Sollux snapped as Karkat bounded past him then frowned, “Hey wait!” He called out to him but Karkat didn’t stop, if anything he ran faster towards the door and stairs. The nerd scowled and sighed, “Tho much for trying to catch up.” He muttered to himself as he went over to sit at where Karkat had been sitting.

It had been a long time since Sollux had actually hung out with Karkat, ever since…

“ _Get the fuck out.” He said coldly, not even looking back as Karkat tried to say something. “Get the fuck out and never come back Karkat.” The smaller male made a hurt noise but after a moment, Sollux heard nothing, he turned around and he found himself alone in the room- his door still open. He felt briefly guilty before he beat down that guilt and focused back on his broken computer._

He cringed, yeah.

Karkat had apologized, but back then he had been too stubborn, it had been an honest accident. It wasn’t until Karkat had actually _paid_ to have Sollux’s computer repaired did he realize how much he had fucked up with his old friend, or was it ex friend? They had never really talked anymore nor did they hang out as much, and even then it was usually with someone else that would act as their buffer- aka Kanaya.

Sollux looked up at the sky, his glasses and eyesight giving him a colorful view of the space above him. He had never really apologized for being such a douche as he?

Well, that was going to change. He was going to make sure of it.

He wanted his friend back.

* * *

Karkat had _barely_ made it to his next class, being only a few minutes late and was luckily inside before the teacher who had been a bit late himself. Karkat was still heavily panting as he took his seat.

Until he realized he had left most of his school shit in his locker after lunch- originally he would have gone back to his locker before lunch ended but _nope_ , he had ended up _daydreaming_ on the damned roof for the whole lunch time.

He groaned quietly into his palms after he checked his bag- thankfully he still had a notebook and actual book for his class but he had forgotten his pencil and pens back in his locker. _Dammit_.

Reluctantly, he looked around for someone he could borrow a pencil or pen from. Anyone really, but then again he hardly knew most of the people in this classroom aside from their names, there were a select few he _had_ known before. But he wasn’t going to ask from them so he had no idea who to ask-

“Missin’ somethin’?”

Karkat froze slightly and turned his head backwards towards the owner of the accented voice.

Both amused and slightly bemused violet eyes met his own red ones, Karkat nearly flinched back at the familiar gaze. Nearly. Thankfully he did nothing but nod silently to the teenage male that sat behind him.

~~‘ _ **Aquarius’**_~~

_Eridan Ampora_ sighed behind him, Karkat hadn’t wanted to talk or even _look_ at him. Also, he had no idea why Eridan would talk to _him_ of all people.

“ _She is_ not _interested in **you** Eridan, when the fuck will that cross your mind?!” _

_**SMACK** _

“ _...”_

The albino’s cheek stung in phantom pain. Though, it wasn’t as painful as when Karkat realized he had fucked up royally for one of his best friends.

Or really, _almost_ ** _all_** of his best friends.

He had fucked up a lot of things.

Eridan was a pale aristocratic looking teen, thin square glasses perched on his nose and a purple patch of hair dyed in his auburn locks. He always had a blue scarf around his neck, the rare times you wouldn’t be able to see it on him was if the day was too hot or if he was swimming. He wore a light grey shirt underneath his dark purple jacket, the Aquarius zodiac sign stitched on the breast of his jacket. He wore light blue jeans that were slightly ripped at the knees- Eridan always looked like a hipster most of the time, even more so when it was colder and he could wear that striped blue scarf that he always kept in his bag. Attached to the clothing piece.

He was actually quite popular, even among those who weren’t hipster. He was part of the men’s swimming team. Captain of it now actually ever since Cronus quit the club for whatever reason. He was also one hell of a tutor, he was smart and strict but those he tutored tended to get better grades after a few sessions with him.

~~‘ _ **He has always been a wonderful teacher. He and Gemini both.’**_~~

Karkat contained the snort that threatened to come out of him. Eridan and Sollux could barely stand each other, the only reason they could tolerate each other now was because of a _certain someone_. Without _her_ , they would surely be at each other’s throats at a regular pace.

“Here.”

The albino blinked incredulously as a violet fancy-looking pen was shoved into his face, he’s taken back, looking at Eridan with a shocked and incredulous look.

“Don’t just look at me like that Kar-kat. Just take the damn thin’ and start wwritin’.” Eridan growled at him, insisting the writing utensil upon the confused smaller teen. Karkat hesitated but accepted the pen, Jesus was it fancy, and turned back, muttering a soft ‘Thanks’ and completely missing the small smile the auburn and violet-haired male had.

Eridan stared at the back of Karkat’s head for a moment longer before shaking his head and focusing on the class and taking notes. That was, a small but good start. He just hoped it was enough to get things rolling, though he knows it wasn’t going to be easy, not with how he and Karkat ended up last time.

_Eridan was stunned to see the utter **hurt** look he saw on Karkat’s face. Though those red eyes weren’t looking at him, his heart clenched at the sight of confusion, pain and betrayal in the albino’s eyes. It was unfair. _

_It wasn’t until_ way _later did he realize that it had been unfair for_ Karkat _and not him. And it had been too late to repair the damage of the broken friendship._

He sighed quietly, he had a lot of work to do.

He needed to apologize to him at some point, at a proper time.

* * *

Karkat had left that class as fast as he could. Quickly placing the fancy pen on Eridan’s desk, shoved his notebooks into his bag and booked out of that class before the hipster could even do or even say anything. Leaving the Aquarius signed teen a bit stunned by how fast he went and disappeared from his sight. Darn, looks like he wouldn’t be able to talk to Karkat for a while, or if any today!

That interaction just, rubbed him a strange way and he did _not_ want to stick around to see if that wrong feeling would be justified whatsoever. That, and he needed his books, pens and pencils for the next class anyway so he needed to get to his locker.

The sound of the school is dull on his ears and yet so loud as he tried to keep it together. He’s been on edge since this morning, when that _dream_ woke him up in the middle of the night, from meeting with Gamzee in the morning to him accidentally napping on the roof which lead to him meeting with Sollux. And now just earlier he’d interacted with Eridan.

Today was, just not cropping out to be his day.

But at least he hadn’t managed to interact with Terezi and Vriska, his already souring day would no doubt turn for the worse if he did. Or if they did. Who knows, certainly not him and he didn’t want to know.

Karkat sighed, opening his locker and this time shoving in the writing utensils he needed, vowing not to leave them in his locker ever again. They were now staying permanently within in his backpack.

…

Then he realized what class was next and he cursed, reluctantly putting his things in the locker and trudging towards the next class.

Physical Education.

One of his worst classes.

He was, in one word… was a wimp.

He was physically weak, noodle for arms, sticks for legs and a weak ~~_failing_~~ immune system.

It was _really_ tempting to let his couch know about his… _unfortunate predicament_ , just to avoid the class but he didn’t want to deal with the repercussions with _that_. The couch wasn’t born cancer, a random tidbit of information he had learned by listening to the random information mill that was part of the school. You could find out almost anything on that. Almost anything. Thankfully.

But the point was, he couldn’t control the coach into doing his bidding _because_ he was a _Taurus_. So he’d technically probably only listen to Tavros if he had remembered… Which he didn’t.

So Karkat was forced to participate in Phys Ed.

The only perks to that was because of his albino status, he couldn’t do anything too particularly straining or in a sunny area since it would seriously mess him up. But how long that would last, he had no idea. The other perk was that most of the time, the class he had _didn’t_ have anyone he knew personally in it. Occasionally it would, merging the period with another class but he was fairly sure it wasn’t the case today.

Kind of.

It was pool day so Phys Ed was spent at one of the school’s swimming pools, and since it was a very sunny and hot day he got to sit out of it lest he risk giving himself a sunburn. He ignored the grumbles and grunts from his male classmates that he was spending the time with but thankfully they would be too distracted by the female part of their class in the other swimming pool.

Which also included the captain of the female’s swim team.

Feferi Peixes.

Dark skin, long wild hair, she was really popular from her looks and personality and the fact that she was a champion swimmer added in the good touch. She always carried around a pair of goggles, obsessed with water and the sea, she was a light-hearted girl that was one of the nicest persons to exist like Tavros.

Karkat despised her.

…

Okay that was probably dramatic and such and he didn’t really mean it. He didn’t really despise her but, he _hated_ the way she was able to naturally draw in people with ease, being able to make friends with no problems, being liked-

But then again she managed to cause such drama too.

So maybe he shouldn’t hate her for that.

Hell, he couldn’t even hate her properly for causing such a dramatic ruckus between two of his ex-best friends.

He just hated her social capabilities he supposes.

It was weird.

Still, he had to admit, he couldn’t keep his eyes off her as she swam. No one could unless they were busy with their own swimming.

Feferi was a mermaid born with legs.

And that was very accurate too.

‘ ~~ _ **It is nice to see Pisces still enjoying the water.**_~~ ’

Karkat held back a snort and nodded slightly in agreement.

Before, he was slightly affected by her looks, she was just so unfairly pretty but, remembering on how _Pisces_ looked… He actually found her looks to be quite normal now.

Ugh, he should really stop comparing people he knew to a crazy hallucination slash dream slash possible fucking memory or whatever.

He didn’t need to torture himself with the fact he was _even more_ crazy or the fact that he _actually preferred his_ _ **dreams**_ rather than reality. Which was slightly understandable but still, he just, wanted to sleep and never wake up…

It was a dangerous request, but it would be fulfilled one day.

Maybe.

From the other side of the pool, Feferi frowned a bit, panting slightly as she absentmindedly dried her hair. She had finished her round around the pool, the coach letting her rest at the side since she was done before the others, normally she would do more laps but today she felt like just cutting back a bit. So here she was, sitting on the opposite bleachers, spying on the other bleachers of the other pool where underneath the dark shade of the bleachers was Karkat.

Karkat was just staring off into space, thinking of something, she wondered on what he was thinking. She was never really close to Karkat, but they were in the same group of friends as before. It was, kinda sad to see him there all on his lonesome. No one was looking at him except for her, and the boys that were done with their laps were sitting away from him, mostly staring at her and trying to flex whenever they caught her eye or when she looked at them.

It was ridiculous.

Hmm, maybe she should talk to him today. For old time’s sake? Or at least to know how he was, it’s been forever, ever since… well, yeah.

Maybe she should talk to him today.

Too bad there were cons to being as popular as her.

* * *

Karkat left Phys Ed tiredly, thanking the clouds and skies above that next period was free period and he could spend it hiding away in some dark corner somewhere. After quickly changing into his normal clothes, avoiding the crowds, it seemed like Feferi had wanted to talk to him by the way she had looked at him when she exited the girl’s shower room, thankfully she was then bombarded by females and males alike and Karkat managed to avoid confronting her and slipped away before she could even try to follow him.

Off to the dark corners of wherever the fuck.

Maybe the library.

Since he hadn’t had any other location in mind he latched towards that one thought and went towards the library.

With that, he went to the older section of the library, one where most students didn’t usually go to and he could read and spend the rest of free period on his lonesome, in peace.

He found a comfy spot on the second floor library, deep within the old section where it smelled of dust and old but well kept books that lined the shelves. He used his bag as a cushion as he lent against a shelf, sighing in content, comforted by his surroundings and the fact he was alone.

The small teen smiled to himself as he read a book that he had taken from his bag before he used it as a pillow and went to read where he had left off the last time he had read the book.

At some point though, he never noticed when he slipped into unconsciousness, feeling more tired today for some unfathomable reason.

* * *

“ _...er..”_

“ _...ncer...”_

“ _Cancer.”_

_Abruptly, the star straightened as he was awoken from his sudden slumber. “P-Pardon?” He stammered groggily, a yawn barely held back as he registered where he was. He blinked the rest of his drowsiness away as he took in the familiar figures in front of him. “Ah, my apologies Gemini, it seems I have fallen asleep in your library once more. I must do something about this habit.”_

_Twin chuckles met his ears as he stretched lightly, shaking his head slightly as he did so. “It’s alright Cancer.” “We don’t mind.” They said kindly, amusement in their eyes. “You are always.” “Welcome inside here.” They murmured, their nearly identical yet different and slightly smaller bodies floating above the table as well as himself as they reached for a shelf high in the air with four books in hands._

_Gemini was one unique constellation, though all of them were unique, it wasn’t often that a star could split itself into two perfect halves. When separated, they took on the opposite spectrum of each other, one body taking in the dark colors of red with lightened colors of blue while the other took the colors of dark blue and the lightened colors of red. It was a fascinating phenomenon. Their visors would be one primary color unlike when they merged where it would have one half-red and the other blue. It went the same for their clothes, their black and white vests would merge for a gray color to signify their joining, though their pants would be like their visor, half the color of what they would wear separated._

_They kept the knowledge of the library, its keeper and protector and their expert on all things complicated._

_Cancer enjoyed Gemini’s library, but had the tendency to be lulled into sleep at it’s peaceful atmosphere most of the time much to his chagrin, though at least the others took amusement from his embarrassing and unfortunate habit._

“ _What were you.” “Reading this time?” Gemini asked after returning the book to the shelf it belonged, the shelf itself moving once more once the action as done. Silently moving along its siblings and the walls of the library that served as the knowledge-filled hub for all constellations, especially Gemini._

_Cancer hummed, “What do you think?” he showed his teeth in his grin as he focused back on his book the moment he heard Gemini huff in amusement._

“ _That book.” “Again Cancer?”_

_Fond amusement, something shared by them both._

“ _What can I say, it is a favorite of mine.” Cancer admits with no shame, smiling as he read the page once more of the small protagonist’s adventures. “The content of the book is filled with knowledge, as you know.”_

_Gemini huffs once more, twin looks of mock annoyance, ruined by their young faces, “Indeed.” “Mhmm.” They moved closer to each other, hands clasping together, Cancer glanced away as they glowed, in the mood to be one huh?_

“ _I don’t see why you’re so interested in this type of knowledge Cancer.” The familiar, deeper and older voice of Gemini said as the light died down, Cancer gave him a knowing look and a grin as the taller constellation sat down on the table. Anybody else would be reprimanded into sitting properly on the chair but Gemini was the Keeper of this Library so he was pardoned. If barely._

_Cancer shrugged and focused back on the book, “It’s enamoring. The adventure, the literature, the emotion… Mortals are so creative.” He said, a slightly dazed look on his face as he caressed the soothing page, “Do not tell me that you are not moved by the creation of men- as flawed as they are, their flaws are their own personal versions of perfection.” He murmured, closing the book though he kept note of the page and where he had left off as usual._

_Gemini stayed silent and snorted, “True I suppose, they do make interesting key points of knowledge before their deaths.” Their starry subjects were interesting sure, but there was something so_ differently interesting _of the mortals that the stars themselves couldn’t help but pay attention from time to time._

“ _I havven’t heard the wwhole convversation but of course Gemini manages to fit in knowwledge and death into the same sentence as usual.”_

_Both constellations blinked and looked back to see Aquarius gliding in with his usual grace, a look of amusement perched on his face. “Cancer. Gemini.” The violet colored star greeted._

“ _Aquarius.” They chorused back in greeting, looking just as amused._

“ _So, wwhat has brought forth another sentence of knowwledge and death from the lips of our dearest librarian?” Aquarius teased lightly as he took a chair, setting aside his amphora to sit more properly and comfortably._

“ _Mortals.”_

_Aquarius snorted from Cancer’s answer, “Ah, I see. Curious little ones are they not?”_

“ _Curious yes, and completely short-lived. Ah, pardon, short-liv-ved.” Gemini jested with no heat, something that caused both Cancer and Aquarius to smile._

_The relationship between the two constellation was quite complicated, but in the end, it mattered not and they were close comrades that looked out for each other. Seeing them jest and jab each other in such a friendly way warmed Cancer’s heart._

_The sound of the two constellation’s voices washed over him and he found himself lulling back to sleep once more, much to the other star’s amusement when they turned to Cancer for conversation after finally remembering that they were not the only ones within the library in such a close vicinity._

* * *

“ _Are you quite alright Cancer? You seem exhausted.”_

_Cancer blinked furiously, rubbing his eyelids slightly as he took in a deep breath. “Yes, I am, my apologies Pisces but it seems that current events are currently taking more of a toll on me than I realize.” He said to the beautiful constellation before him._

_Pisces smiled back at him, understandingly kind as always. Her almost unbelievably long tresses of sparkly dark hair floated around her, as if submerged in water. “It is alright my friend, I am afraid that I feel quite the same as you, this… predicament has become quite the problem, one that should have been dealt with earlier on...” She trailed off with a frown, fuchsia eyes glinting lowly in thought._

“ _Unfortunately it wasn’t and we still do not know where it came from in the first place.” Cancer finished for her with a tired sigh._

_Pisces nodded, mirroring his sigh fully as they sat in the meeting room, just the two of them. The others were busy with tasks that the both of them had given them in light of the troubles that dawned on them now for years._

_Pisces flicked her tail in slight irritation, beautiful pinkish scales shining from below her waist. She had preferred her tail for this meeting it seemed, her legs still healing from the last attack on their kingdom. Something that had been jarring but she would be fine. Another visit to Virgo in the infirmary later on would make things better._

_Her jewelry glittered along her skin as she moved her arms to prop herself on the table, fins fluttering slightly as she closed her eyes, most likely focusing on the defenses around the citadel of their kingdom._

“ _...Anything?”_

_Cancer couldn’t help but ask after a moment of silence, tense as she looked for any threat that was nearby their home._

_Though he relaxed the tiniest bit when she opened her eyes and shook her head, looking just as satisfied with it as he probably was at the moment._

_The last attack was close, and it was something that was starting to worry them and their starry subjects._

“ _We must prepare nonetheless. I pray that things are not as horrid as I may so paranoidly think.” Cancer muttered, his moment of relaxation ruined by his own paranoid thoughts of how things would turn for the worse._

_Usually Pisces would do her best to convince him that nothing was wrong, however, this time she stayed silent. She knew he was right on some level, on what though was unknown to the both of them. Cancer, though he had mellowed out from his youth as a burning bright warrior star, eager to prove that his title was well-earned, was still as paranoid as ever underneath the calm exterior that he usually portrayed._

_Something was over the horizon, and they would rather be ready for nothing than not be ready at all._

“ _I agree.” Pisces finally said, looking as tired as she was beautiful. Her usual composure as a ruler was gone in the privacy of the meeting room._

_Cancer sighed, reaching over to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder, smiling reassuringly, “Things will be well my friend, for now, we must simply prepare and make sure that everyone lives.”_

_Especially their most closest of friends._

_The nebulas know what hell might happen should they loose ~~another~~ a fellow constellation._

* * *

_They were only suppose to evacuate the stars from the village that were on the border of their kingdom._

_It was suppose to be safe._

_They were supposed to save every star and constellation there._

_But it wasn’t._

_It was an **a m b u s h.**_

“ _ARIES!!”_

_**p A I n** _

_**P ai NNNn** _

“ _CANCER!”_

“ _CANCER!”_

“ _KANCER!”_

“ _KANCET!”_

“ _KARKET!”_

“ _KARKAT!”_

* * *

Karkat flailed, knocking away the hands that had gripped his shoulders in favor of dry heaving against the floor, his senses muddled and his body trembling as he did so. A pair of comforting hands soothed him, rubbing his back as he coughed, curling into himself.

“Shh… Hey, it’s-it’s okay Karkat… That’s it...”

He didn’t know who was patting his back and comforting them but he appreciated it, they sounded familiar though.

“Do you, um, do you need anything? Are you okay now Karkat? Maybe we should get you to the clinic.”

They certainly sounded worried.

Wait.

Who was it?

Who was watching him being so pathetic?!

He gulped down some air, trying not to choke on it as he turned his head to look at who was with him at the moment- wasn’t he in the older parts of the library where most people don’t go to most of the time?

Who was-…

Fuck.

He _forgot_.

How the hell could he _forget_. _Aradia Megido_ was an avid reader and loved to hang out in old places, _especially_ the library. How the fuck did that slip his mind?!

“A-A-Ar--” He tried to say, his red eyes widening at the sight of the other that knelt beside him, her hand on his back for comfort earlier on.

She had long black hair, her features, slightly asian but she had a healthy tan to her skin from the amount of time she spent outside for the activities she enjoyed that needed her outside. Her eyes were auburn, mostly brown but in some cases or in the right lighting, they could’ve been rusty red, a weird but not impossible phenomenon. She wore a dark red shirt with a black skull on the front, though on the skull’s forehead the Aries sign was stitched into it. Aradia was wearing a long black skirt today, though it was slightly frayed at the end since it was obviously an old but beloved skirt- Kanaya’s been meaning to ask her about that for quite some time now.

‘ _Aradia_.’ Is what Karkat would have said.

‘ ~~ _ **Aries**_~~ _ **.**_ ’ Is what Cancer would have said.

Neither came out as Karkat choked on air, starting another coughing fit that certainly alarmed Aradia.

“Karkat! Ah, um, hold on-” She looked around before she spotted her own water bottle, she uncapped it and offered it to him. He almost declined, but his throat was spasming and he suddenly felt really thirsty for whatever reason.

So without much other choice, he accepted the water, trying to calm himself down enough to be able to drink water without the slight possibility of choking on it. It took more than a few moments but he was able to gulp down some water, it soothed his throat and minutely his coughs subsided.

Karkat panted lightly, capping the bottle and shoving it back to Aradia.

“Th-Thanks...” He croaked, taking a minute to regain his bearings.

Aradia smiles at him, “It’s no problem Karkat… are you okay? Maybe we should really take you to the clinic.” She suggested, her smile turning into a frown of worry. It deepened when Karkat vehemently shook his head in disagreement.

“It’s fu-fucking _fine_ \- _I’m_ fucking fine. I just, swallowed something the wrong way.” _Lame excuse_.

Aradia obviously didn’t seem convinced, “In your sleep?” She replied dryly, the worry on her face grew, “You… you looked like you were having a nightmare.” She said softly.

Earlier, she had been perusing the old books in the older part of the school library. Fully intending to find a nice old book about archeology and read it once more, there was just something so serene in reading such old books in such an old place.

And then she had accidentally stumbled into one sleeping Karkat Vantas, someone who… admittedly hadn’t been on her mind for quite some time. She had seen he was asleep, and she had hadn’t really wanted to wake him up _until_ she noticed _how_ he was asleep.

He kept muttering underneath his breath, at first, it had been peaceful-like, a one-sided conversation she couldn’t hear at all since all she could hear was barely heard mutterings that might have not been English, and the other half of the conversation was in Karkat’s mind.

It was a bit fascinating to watch. She didn’t mean to stay longer than she had like, but she couldn’t really look away.

Then, the fond and peaceful look on Karkat’s sleeping face turned into a worried and harrowed frown, his body tense like a bowstring ready to snap, his mutters grew softer and more somber. Whoever he was talking to in his dreams managed to soothe him slightly it seemed, his body wasn’t as tense, but the somber look on his unconscious face was still there, concerning.

Aradia’s heart jumped to her throat when suddenly Karkat was thrashing in his sleep, a silent howl on his lips as he writhed against the floor, bumping into the bottom of the shelves and almost rocking a few books from their place- she actually had to prevent a heavy tome from falling on Karkat before she had to wake him up!

Seeing Karkat thrash against her grip, crying out a strange but somewhat familiar word in his sleep, it shook her. She had never seen him like this, ever. Even when they had been kids! … She thinks, they hadn’t been as close but Sollux had been close to Karkat, and as far as she could remember, Karkat hadn’t had any nightmares that caused this kind of reaction from him!

But then again… it had been so long since they had spoken.

She realized this as they stewed in a growingly awkward silence.

“Are you sure?” Aradia asked after an awkward moment, “I mean-”

“Yes I’m fucking sure.” Karkat snapped back with more hostility than he had meant to give, he shook his head and stood up, batting away the attempt of assistance from Aradia as he did so even if he stood up on wobbly thin legs. “I’m _fine_ , I don’t need, to see the clinic.” He muttered, stretching slightly as he steadied himself on his feet.

She still wasn’t convince, looking over him with a cautious eye that Karkat hated. He wanted to shout at her to stop looking at him like that, like he was made of glass and was about to break the moment something happened.

~~Accurate.~~

“Again, thanks for the bottle… I’m gonna go.” Karkat mumbled, quickly snatching his bag and shoving his abandoned book into his bag, quickly getting out of the aisle of bookshelves and trying to get out of the library.

“Karkat wait!”

He ignored her and quickly made his way to the nearest exit.

Thankfully for him, he had pretty much memorized the amount of exits within school, just in case, the paranoia in him had been spazzing out one day and he made the painstaking decision of finding and memorizing every exit path within the school.

He knew all the dark spots and the exits and entrance ways of the school like the back of his hand.

So he managed to loose Aradia after gaining some distance from her, her long skirt would make it slightly hard to maneuver around the library, not to mention was the fact that Karkat was fast. If it weren’t for his freakish genes, his shitty stamina and the fact that the sun was his enemy, he could’ve made a great track runner.

The one perk to Aradia waking him up was that she had managed to wake him up before free period had ended, which was great since Karkat could now focus on getting to his next class.

Only…

He suddenly didn’t want to go to class.

His stomach ached and rumbled as he entered the main hallway of the school, the hall already thinning as students made their way to their next classes.

Karkat hunched over himself as he stumbled into the nearest bathroom he could get too, ignoring the other males that were in the bathroom before class started. He went to occupy a stall, sitting on the seat and hugging his bag to his chest as his stomach ached- somehow, it reached up to his chest and suddenly his chest was aching as well.

He struggled to keep silent as he vaguely listened to the teen boys in the bathroom. Eventually though, they left and Karkat was seemingly alone in the bathroom.

“Fuck...” He whispered to himself, bag dropping to the, thankfully clean, bathroom floor as he clutched his chest. He lurched forward, colliding with the stall door, clumsily, he fumbled for the door to open just so he could collapse fully on the cold tiles of the bathroom floor.

“ _Fffhuuuuuhuuuccck._ ”

What was going on? His chest felt so tight, he could hear the drumbeat of his heart in his ears so clearly, he felt like he was going to go insane!

Shakily, he got to his feet, using the bathroom sink as leverage and as a crutch, his eyes were closed tight as he panted heavily against the sink.

Maybe he shouldn’t have declined Aradia’s offer of going to the clinic.

_He felt like he was dying._

‘ _ ~~ **You are dying.**~~_ ’

Karkat’s eyes snapped open and he looked into the mirror, his reflection staring at him.

Only it wasn’t his reflection.

Oh sure, it looked like him, but his _eyes_ , they were glowing a big bright _**red**_ that would have him stumbling back if it weren’t for the near-paralyzing pain that he was feeling. And another thing, his reflection didn’t seem to be in pain, he was just standing on his side of the mirror as if nothing was happening at all, and he had this _sad_ look on his face.

A _pitying_ look.

‘ _ ~~ **I am not pitying you my mortal self.**~~_ ’

It wasn’t Karkat’s reflection.

It was Cancer wearing his skin.

“You _shut the fuck up_.” He snarled into the mirror, at least, he attempted to. It came out in an angry wheeze instead. “I-I have… plenty more time… before I fucking die.”

He did. Or at least, the doctor had said so.

Cancer’s expression didn’t change, if anything it grew a bit sadder.

‘ _ ~~ **Your time shortens. You keep denying who you are, who WE are… it’s affecting you negatively.**~~_ ’

“The fuck… does that… _mean_?!”

‘ _ ~~ **You feel the power underneath your skin do you not? Release it, you will feel better when you do.**~~_ ’

Karkat let out a growl that turned into a pained whimper, “I… am in _school_ , you fucking… ass… I can’t...” He couldn’t just release whatever weird power was underneath his skin! He could just-- he just _couldn’t_.

‘ _ ~~ **Please little one, you’re in pain. You must release! Acknowledge who we are!**~~_ ’

“We… are _**nothing**_! I am… Karkat V-Vantas… and tha-that’s _it_! I’m… not you! And don’t caah-call me little, you gl-glittering bas-tard!”

‘ ~~… _ **My apologies my mortal self, but you cannot hold underneath this painful pressure. If you will not release, then I will**_~~’

Karkat’s face twisted in pain and now confusion at his words before it clicked in his head, “No, _don’t you da-_ ”

Suddenly something wet slid down his face.

It was a tear.

 _Of blood_.

His shiny, glittery blood.

_What the fuck._

“Nonono _nonono_ \--”

Suddenly bile went up his throat.

Only it wasn’t bile, or vomit or even stomach acids.

It was more of his blood.

He gagged on it before it dripped out of his mouth, his reflection- _Cancer_ stared back at him with grim determination and satisfaction, his own eyes crying blood and his mouth stained with it as well.

Karkat gurgled, blood dripping off of him but not hitting the floor, each droplet and glob of blood instead floated in the air around him, sparkling and shining like the stars that were no longer in his veins-

“ _Holy fucking shit._ ”

Karkat whirled around, eyes ablazed and glowing in power that was finally being released. He paled significantly as he saw a boy his age with wide blue eyes behind square-rimmed spectacles in the bathroom with him.

_No. No no no No nO **NonoNONOnonO--**_

It was too much for him.

Karkat’s eyes slipped into the back of his head, eyes fluttering shut and he was falling _down--_

“ _Oh fuck!_ ”

Faintly, he felt his clothes ruffle, nonexistent hands catching him and drifting him down gently to the ground.

“ _I gotcha…Holy fuck, Rose, what the fuck did you lead to me this time?_ ”

Karkat drowned in his unconsciousness, black overtaking his very view and encompassing him in his mind.

From deep within, Cancer smiled tiredly.

A rocky start but it would do.

* * *

When Karkat woke up, he was immediately alert. A blond female stranger smiled at him enigmatically from her seat, a somewhat familiar black-haired male straightened when he noticed Karkat was awake.

“Ah, welcome back to the land of the living Lord Cancer.”

“You’re awake! Um, sorry for startling you Lord Cancer sir.”

“What.”

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Karkat suffering. 
> 
> I wonder why I find that so interesting. 
> 
> Though don't worry, things will get better now that John and Rose are entering the scene! 
> 
> In a nut shell though, this is how the story will go:
> 
> Things get better, then they get worse, then they get better, then they get worse, then they get even more worse, then they get better- you see where I'm going with this? 
> 
> Anyway, this'll be interesting to write since I'm actually not using SBURB in anyway in this fic! SBURB-free! No game in this one, just old gods and stars and more!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed, till next time!


End file.
